Biography
Irwin Shaw (1913–1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. He was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the Bronx, New York, and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1934. He began his career writing for radio shows including Dick Tracy and The Gumps, and his first professionally produced play, Bury the Dead, appeared on Broadway in 1936.
Shaw wrote screenplays for several films in the 1940s, including The Talk of the Town (1942), co-written with Sidney Buchman. His best-known novels include The Young Lions (1948), which was adapted into a 1958 film starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), the basis for a popular 1976 television miniseries. His works sold more than 14 million copies.
